Soundy

"OSD" stands for "on screen display", meaning the various options are configured via on-screen menus rather than using DIP switches or other methods. It has no relation to the output connections. Privacy masking blocks out part of the picture - that's configured through the OSD menus as well.

Depends what you mean by "works with". Click the link, it says right there on the homepage: "Load site plan / floor plan background images from AutoCAD, Visio or Google Earth"

And the "piece-de-resistance"... note that the power wiring to this camera is solid 18/3, run across the roof along with everything else... stapled through the shingles with fence staples.

Wonder why this PTZ doesn't work? Wait, is that a camera, or an aquarium??

Oh snap! That upside-down housing isn't a real Pelco EH3512... and it's not really all that weathertight!

Some more examples of the fine wiring job (unfortunately I don't have a shot of the lines draping down the slope of the canopy roof... classic!)

Well, got called in to this site yesterday to clean their outside cameras, clean up the wiring, and figure out why some of them weren't working. Well, at first glance, here's what's up with the wiring:

This lens will give you excellent quality at wide angle: Lists at a mere CDN$1040 Of course, you need one of these to mount it on:

Depends. If you're only needing one or two cameras, then probably. If you already have full network infrastructure in, then it saves you needing to run camera wiring. Of course, it depends on the card you're comparing it to... it certainly won't be cheaper than some $20 eBay junk card.

They're decent picture quality... night mode is quite good on the DN... but I wouldn't call them well-built. The three-axis yoke is all plastic, very flimsy, and a pain in the arse to adjust - they include three different mini Allan keys for the adjusting screws, and some of them are hidden away in hard-to-find, hard to reach areas. Plus, their setup software sucks arse - they only give you a complete install package that installs their own minimalist NVR application along with the setup utility, and doesn't give you the option to NOT install the NVR. Oh... and the setup util actually runs fine on Windows 2000, but the installer will kack out and say Windows 2000 isn't supported. All in all, decent cameras as far as output goes, but from an installer's perspective, very poorly designed in all aspects. "Auto lens"? Are you looking for autofocus, or auto-iris? These cameras don't support either. Once they're in and running, they're dandy. Getting them there is far more hassle than it should be.

What current capacity are they? Chances are, it's not enough for the cameras - once the motor fires up, the voltage drops, and the camera resets.

What power supplies are you using? 12VDC or 24VAC? If DC, are the regulated? What current rating?

I don't have any Linux machines running right now... try it yourself with the link above. No reason it shouldn't work though...

If you can sell him on a PC-based system, Video Insight will work with pretty much every browser out there, PC or mobile. www.demovi.com (I'm watching it right now on Chrome).

From what I could find on that card, you should be able to do 30fps on all cameras at up to 720x480 resolution - for analog cameras, that's about as good as it gets, with ANY hardware. Worst case, you might be limited to 15fps at full resolution, or something (I'm not personally familiar with those systems), but it certainly should be capable of far more than you're doing with it. If the Aver software has a web-client component, you could probably just use that directly as your live feed...

This is just a wild guess, but the looped wires could be in support of a dual-voltage setup. Example (and just using random pin numbers for simplicity): Say this manufacturer uses a standard breakout cable for all their cameras. They use pins 1 and 2 for 12VDC power input, and 3 and 4 for 24VAC. If the camera uses 12VDC only, then it would have connections to pins 1 and 2; if it's 24VAC only, it would have connections to pins 3 and 4. If it's a dual-voltage camera that supports either, it would then maybe have pins 1 and 3 tied together, as well as pins 2 and 4... that way it would work with either style of breakout cable. Just a thought as to one potential reason for this setup...

^That's basically just four active baluns in one box... nothing he hasn't already looked at. Hair: really, you seem to be on the right track with all your ideas - any of them should work fine, the choice really depends on your particular setup and layout, whether it will be more efficient, install-wise, to run multiple cameras over one run with a hub, or with multiple individual baluns, or to home-run each one with its own UTP... sorry I can't be more helpful, but ultimately your listed options all come down to personal preference.

Do you have a codec or player for this file? Even VLC with K-Lite can't play it.

Doing basic setup and testing on the bench is highly recommended to make sure everything's in proper working order BEFORE getting on-site (nothing like finding a DOA camera or damaged lens WHILE doing an install). Pre-focusing on the bench is a neat idea... IF you know the distance you'll be mounting the camera from the target area and can set up a similar target to focus on. That's not always easy or even possible. For IP cams, I like to carry a cheap Wireless-N router (better range than b/g, even if your laptop only has b/g) that I plug in at or near the DVR, or into another network port within range of the camera, and then use my netbook to do the final setup on the cameras after they're in place (focus, aim, etc.)

You get what you pay for. A $22 IR camera will work, but probably not very well. In short: cheap junk.

http://www.jvsg.com/

Scorpion has a LOT of stuff on his website at www.scorpiontheather.com, especially for standalone DVRs... other than that, I don't know of any kind of central repository for that sort of information. Maybe there should be!

The CNBs noted don't have IR. And no, you can't put a CS mount lens on those cameras. In addition to the smaller lens mount on the camera (the only domes I've used that take CS-mount lenses are the Arecont AV3155DNs), most CS lenses would be too deep to fit inside the dome. You'd get about a 1/3-stop increase in light going from f/1.2 to f/1.0, not really enough to be worth messing with it.

It sounds like your problem may be low shutter speed, but it would be a lot easier to tell if you could post some short video clips, or even just stills from the "bad" sections.